Fortnite’s Season 5 update adds gyro aiming on Switch

It’s July 12th and do you know what that means? It’s time for an all new season of Fortnite Battle Royale, seemingly the biggest game on the planet right now.

We’ve combed through the patch notes (which we’ll list below) and there’s a tonne of new stuff on show here, but the big one for Switch players is that finally, gyro aiming is here:

Gyro/motion controls have been added to the Nintendo Switch. Adjust these options in the Settings menu.

There’s also a new vehicle, the All Terrain Kart, which is big enough for your entire squad, two new locations on the map, a new system for weekly challenges, and heaps more minor things that we just don’t have the time to go over. There are also some interesting new rifts showing up across the map, and players are invited to test their courage and step through. What that means is anyone’s guess. It also comes with a new icon on Switch, which is nice.

We’ve listed the full patch notes below, minus the bits about the Save The World mode, which isn’t likely to come to Switch anytime soon.

v5.0 Patch Notes

GENERAL

• When the “Invited to Party” prompt appears in the UI you can now immediately accept the invite rather than having to open the Party Finder.
• The News widget has been adjusted to avoid the need for a scrollbar in most cases.
  • A scroll option has been added for controller users in the event that scrolling is needed.
• Updated consoles to use less shader storage. This improves patch sizes and reduces load times.
• Optimized file ordering to reduce load times on all platforms.
• The “Epic Friends” button now appears on the Main Menu when using a gamepad on Windows or Mac.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue that intermittently caused the Push-To-Talk setting to not function as intended.
• Blocked players will no longer show as suggested friends.

BATTLE ROYALE

Weapons + Items 

• Shotguns will now indicate how many pellets hit, visible within the reticle.
• Adjusted shotgun spread patterns to be consistent with no random variation.
• Heavy Shotgun now fires 10 pellets rather than 5.
  • Maximum damage for the Heavy Shotgun remains unchanged.
• After firing a shotgun, another shotgun cannot be fired for a very short time.
• Reduced Hunting Rifle aim assist when targeting to match that of other Sniper Rifles with projectile bullets.
• Changed the damage drop-off profile for the Suppressed SMG to be the same as other SMGs.
  • Fall off starts at 24 meters from 28 meters.
  • Damage reduced to 80% at 35 meters from 85% at 47.5 meters.
  • Damage reduced to 65% at 50+ meters from 75% at 70+ meters.

Gameplay

• All Terrain Kart (ATK)
  • The new All Terrain Kart (ATK) has room for your entire squad.
  • Get a speed boost after drifting.
  • The roof acts as a bounce pad.
  • Work together as rear passengers to leap over obstacles with the All Terrain Kart (ATK). Lean back and release at the same time for a higher jump.
    • Lean back by holding S on keyboards or holding back on the thumbstick for controllers.
• Map Updated
  • New Biome: Desert
  • New Location: Paradise Palms
  • New Location: Lazy Links
  • A few unnamed POIs have also appeared across the island.
• The center of Storm circles 7, 8, and 9 can now shift in random directions (instead of simply shrinking). As the storm closes in, it will move & shrink to the new location.
• Starting in Season 5, progressive challenges will no longer be restricted to a single season. You can now complete progressive challenges at your own pace.
• Progressive challenges are now completed by acquiring a fixed amount of XP and is no longer dependant on your season level.
• Gyro/motion controls have been added to the Nintendo Switch. Adjust these options in the Settings menu.
• Weekly challenges are now split into two sections, free and Battle Pass. The first 3 challenges will be available for free while the last 4 are only available if you own the Battle Pass. The threshold to unlock the weekly challenge reward will remain at 4.
• Down But Not Out players now have smaller collision. Previously their collision was at the standing height which blocked DBNO players from crawling under doors and blocked building collision in some cases.
  • Players that were crouching when knocked Down But Not Out will be returned to a crouching state upon revival.
• Emoting will now interrupt sprinting.
• You now earn XP for reviving teammates in 50v50 and Teams of 20 LTMs up to three times per match (30XP, 10XP, 10XP).
• Weapon reticle will now fade slightly when reloading, out of ammo, or changing weapons.
• The player camera can now see out of the water when walking in lakes.
• Bug Fixes
  • Launch Pads and Cozy Campfires now destroy overlapping small objects when placed.
  • Reduced trigger volume for floor Damage Trap to better match visuals and prevent triggering when standing on ledges above.
  • Supply Llamas now fall to the ground if the object they were standing on is destroyed.
  • Autorun will no longer cancel if you let go of the stick and it slightly flicks backward while using a gamepad.
  • Fixed issue where Autorun could be active while using a Shopping Cart.
  • The first Storm circle will now consistently do 1 damage.
  • Players will no longer get stuck in a doorway if they were standing in it when the door closed.
  • Fixed an issue that prevented some weapon animations from playing.
  • Autorun can no longer be activated while walking backward.
  • Textures will now consistently appear correctly while in Edit Mode.
  • Fixed a crash that could occur when logging out.

Performance

• Improved performance of Shopping Carts on both the game client and server

Audio

• Added unique ambient audio to the new desert biome. More unique ambient audio for the map will be coming in future updates!
• Lowered the volume of the Battle Pass Challenge success sound.
• UI audio has been redesigned, all button and interface sounds updated.
• Bug Fixes
  • Dual Pistol fire sound will no longer get cut off if you switch weapons immediately after firing.
  • The True Love emotes audio will no longer overlap with itself if multiple players use it near each other.
  • The funky electronic track to the Dance Moves emote on Mobile/Switch platforms has been re-enabled.

UI

• We now allow users to enable the same sound visualizer on all platforms that were created for mobile – however, while the visualizer is enabled, audible sound effects will be muted. Mobile platforms are unaffected by this change and will retain sound effects and the visualizer. You can find this new option under the Accessibility tab in the settings.
• Streamer mode no longer just says “Player###”, instead it now uses the player’s cosmetic character as their display name “Character[###]”. So instead of “Eliminated Player100” you may see, “Eliminated Rust Lord[100]”.  Anyone eliminating someone in streamer mode will now see Streamer[###].
• Added extra audio and visual fanfare to the Victory Royale end of match sequence.
• The “Dialogue Audio”, “Global Chat”, and “Auto Equip Better Weapons” options have been removed as they have no function in Battle Royale.
• Zooming in and out on the map is now twice as fast with the controller.
• The “Play Again” button will now allow players to preview pickaxe visual and sound effects in the Item Shop, Battle Pass, and Locker.
• New faster animation for displaying XP sources have been added to the end of match stats screen.
• Bug Fixes
  • Map markers will now re-appear if removed and added back to the exact same location.
  • End of match stats now appears correctly on all platforms in their correct numeric format.
  • Key bindings for weapon and structure sections in the HUD are now displayed properly.
  • A typo was removed from the item description for the Victory Lap harvesting tool.
  • Controller input will no longer fail when at the Main Menu.
  • Fixed an inconsistency in the UI that was displayed when placing a trap in some cases.
  • “Distance Traveled” is now reported correctly in the Match Stats screen.

Art + Animation

• Bug Fixes
  • Revive animations are no longer skipped if the player was reloading when downed.
  • Effects now appear properly when jumping with the Pot of Gold Harvesting Tool.
  • Prevented sprays from affecting props used in emotes (e.g., the basketball from Baller).